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IFA 2011: Nuance dictation beta is in-car voice-to-text done right

If your vehicle or smartphone has voice-to-text functionality, there's a good chance Nuance is working behind the scenes. If you haven't checked out the company's iPhone or Android app, it's worth the download just to get a feel for the technology, and the company's next implementation is set to arrive in vehicles next year.

At this week's IFA show in Berlin, Germany (think: CES of Europe), Nuance is showing off a new prototype application that not only allows you to dictate SMS or email messages, it lets you edit and replace individual words using a rotary knob.

The biggest issue with voice-to-text technology in day-to-day use is misinterpretation and typos, and while Nuance's system is good right out of the box, the ability to have messages read aloud and then scroll through each individual word to edit the text takes this new system above and beyond what's currently on offer.

We had a chance to sample the demo setup, and it works amazingly well. Even in a crowded room, the system translated a naturally spoken sentence with ease. When the time came to change "meet for coffee" to "meet for dinner," we were able to edit it on the fly with a minimum of distraction. Check out Nuance's demo after the jump and expect to see the tech fitted to at least three or four new vehicles in 2012.